CINCINNATI — A Clermont County man is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court docket after he spent greater than seven years behind bars awaiting trial whereas spending as much as 23 hours a day in his Butler County Jail cell.
“In the event you requested me if this might occur to any person in America, not to mention a veteran, I might have a look at them and say that doesn’t even make sense, that couldn’t occur. However right here we’re,” mentioned Eric Michael Schuster, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who carried out two excursions in Iraq.
“I simply don’t assume folks perceive the state of our justice system,” Schuster mentioned. “Sadly, the judges have discovered methods, loopholes to get round any of your constitutional rights these days in the event that they wish to.”
U.S. District Court docket Decide Timothy Black dismissed three youngster pornography fees towards Schuster in 2023, after admitting that his constitutional proper to a speedy trial had been violated.
Hear extra of Schuster’s story under:
Appeals court docket blames Clermont veteran for 7-year trial delay
Schuster received a job, furnished an residence and commenced rebuilding his life as a free man with a clear prison document.
However federal prosecutors appealed Black’s resolution and requested the sixth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals to reinstate the costs.
On Might 2, a three-judge panel of the appeals court docket reversed Black’s resolution, sending the case again to court docket for trial.
Now, Schuster fears he will probably be despatched again to the Butler County Jail to await trial on alleged crimes that happened a decade in the past. In the meantime, the lead FBI particular agent on Schuster’s case, Daniel Alfin, was shot and killed in Florida in an unrelated investigation in 2021.
Ray Pfeffer
“I’m going to lose the whole lot I’ve rebuilt,” Schuster mentioned. “The Butler County Jail is a horrible place … no one desires to stall whereas they’re within the Butler County Jail, I promise you that.”
The opinion, written by Circuit Decide John Bush, criticized Black for his negligence in failing to determine motions for 18 months, and blamed the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for not prosecuting instances promptly, however laid a lot of the blame on Schuster.
“It is a tough case, and the document earlier than us ought to hassle any jurist … the court docket ought to have achieved extra to maneuver the case ahead,” Bush wrote. “Nor was the conduct of the USA Lawyer’s Workplace with out fault. The district court docket might have been the first explanation for the government-imposed delays, however the workplace ought to have achieved extra to guarantee the immediate adjudication of Schuster’s motions.”
In the end, all three judges determined that Schuster was extra accountable for the general delay.
“Schuster didn’t sincerely assert his proper to a speedy trial in a well timed method — Schuster’s litigation conduct as an entire signifies that he didn’t need a speedy trial. And his failure to exhibit prejudice ensuing from the delay slams the door shut,” Bush wrote within the Might 2 order.
Lot Tan
Schuster and his legal professional, Invoice Gallagher, each mentioned they repeatedly tried to maneuver the case ahead, submitting motions and reminding the choose to rule on them. Schuster even filed a misconduct grievance towards Black in 2023.
“After this grievance was filed, I grew to become conscious of allegations that the topic choose had a backlog of pending motions in prison instances,” wrote sixth Circuit Chief Decide Jeffrey Sutton in a July 2024 ruling dismissing the grievance.
Sutton wrote that he mentioned a remediation plan with the chief choose of the Southern District of Ohio.
“The chief district choose has labored with the topic choose (Black) to create a plan to resolve all pending motions in prison instances. The topic choose not accepts new instances and is working towards resolving all excellent prison motions by Sept. 30 of this yr, at which period he plans to take inactive standing,” Sutton wrote.
In 2024, the WCPO 9 I-Group reported on Black’s sample of extraordinarily sluggish decision-making in current prison instances. Attorneys criticized him for neglecting prison instances, ignoring inmates who filed emergency motions and retaining a lifeless individual on his docket for greater than a yr.
Black didn’t reply to a request for remark. A spokesperson for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace right here declined to remark.
FBI brokers arrested Schuster in 2016 as a part of a world sting referred to as Operation Pacifier. The federal government took over a darkish internet youngster pornography web site, The Playpen, for 2 weeks in early 2015. It resulted in almost 900 arrests worldwide.
When brokers searched Schuster’s residence, they discovered 4 inner laborious drives stored in a field in his lounge that contained 1000’s of pictures and movies of kid pornography, based on the November 2015 prison grievance.
All through 2018 and 2019, Gallagher filed motions to suppress proof and problem the federal government’s search warrant in Schuster’s case. Protection attorneys nationwide have been looking for extra details about the spy ware code the FBI used to hack into the world’s largest youngster pornography web site, which they felt pushed the restrict of the federal government’s skill to go looking computer systems.
“We filed motions that deserved to have hearings. They have been with the choose and ready for hearings, and we weren’t getting them,” Gallagher mentioned. “You’ll be able to’t simply sit on motions for years and never rule.”
Court docket data present that Black didn’t rule on the motions, so Gallagher mentioned he took the bizarre step of asking for a standing convention in October 2020. Nonetheless, Black didn’t rule.
“Decide Black had been sitting on our motions for nearly two years. I didn’t sit on my palms. Eric didn’t sit on his palms,” Gallagher mentioned. “I don’t know what number of occasions I’m presupposed to ask a federal choose to do his job.”
Gallagher mentioned this case is very uncommon, and if it concerned a special crime, he doubted it might have been reversed.
“I’ve been doing this for 37 years. I feel that if you happen to’re charged with something referring to kids or intercourse offenses, it appears the judges work very laborious to keep away from bestowing any profit to somebody who’s charged with these offenses,” Gallagher mentioned. “Prison practitioners will inform you that they assume there’s a intercourse offender exception to the Structure at occasions that’s utilized by judges.”
He worries not nearly Schuster’s case, however the influence it might have on future prison instances.
“In the event you enable somebody to be incarcerated for six or seven years on any cost … you are able to do it right now for youngster pornography, however are you able to additionally do it for somebody charged with trespassing? With somebody who’s charged with a DUI? Are you able to do it to somebody who’s falsely accused of home violence?” Gallagher requested. “At what level is it nonetheless okay to detain somebody for months, weeks, years with out a trial?”
On June 11, the Sixth Circuit denied Gallagher’s request for a rehearing earlier than all the court docket.
Gallagher is now asking to remain the case from continuing to trial, and to maintain Schuster out of jail, whereas he asks the U.S. Supreme Court docket to listen to his enchantment.
